Add Style To Your Kitchen Range Hood With This Idea Inspired By Rachael Ray

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Celebrity cook Rachael Ray spends a long time in the kitchen, so it only makes sense that the one in her Upstate New York home is styled to perfection. A stand-out piece in the space is the black range hood, hanging above an expansive butcher block island right in its center. Instead of covering up the ducting pipe, Ray opted for a simple, industrial pipe, leaving it exposed and spray-painting it black. The cook then added extra support for the hood through four chains connected to the vaulted ceiling. 

This is a fantastic option if you're decorating your home on a budget, allowing you to save up on more expensive designs as well as all the metal, plaster, wood, or stone material you might have used to conceal the duct. Plus, if you have a gorgeous ceiling like the one in Ray and her husband John M. Cusimano's sprawling home, this minimal, slim look ensures there's no chunky chimney blocking the view. After losing their home in a devastating fire in the summer of 2020, the couple decided to faithfully recreate the original when remodeling. The kitchen looks nearly exactly the same, but the new version of the hood is decorated with brass strapping all around the canopy, where its predecessor was plain black. 

The television personality's decor is closer to cottage and farmhouse aesthetics, but her range hood, with its exposed piping and gritty chains, brings an industrial edge to the kitchen. It conveys an unfinished, rough-around-the-edges vibe that perfectly matches the exposed beam ceiling. Ray then spruced it up just a tad with the brass strapping framing the canopy, a popular choice of decorative accent for this appliance. It all works together, since shiny metal and chunky rivets are also two staples of industrial decor. 

Flanking the hood are two equally inexpensive outdoor lamps that Ray purchased from a local home store (per the "Rachael Ray Show"). They also hang from chains and appear to be made of iron, once again adding to the overall look. Intentionally contrasting with the warmer brass metal of the canopy, this is a brilliant example of how to mix metals in your home decor, a massive trend in interior design in recent years. The rest of the kitchen, clad in warm, medium tone wood, from the cabinets to the butcherblock island, offsets the coldness of the exposed piping and metal details for a balanced design.

Because price matters as much as style when choosing the right range hood for your home, let's break down the estimated costs of an exposed duct range hood like Ray's. You can achieve it by pairing a range hood insert like the MCBON Range Hood Insert 30 Inch in black, available for $329.99 with a simple round duct pipe. That range hood insert specifically supports a 6-inch round duct pipe like the Master Flow 6 inch x 5 feet Round Metal Duct Pipe, available on Home Depot for $16.98. You'll want to use smooth rigid ducting for superior air flow. 

To coat the pipe, use a heat-resistant paint, which you can buy for less than $30. The brass strapping can only be achieved in custom-ordered range hoods since, along with being decorative, it's also part of its actual structure. DYIers can replicate the look by painting over the original strapping or using a peel-and-stick metal molding trim, or just go for the all black look of Ray's first range hood. Grade 30 chains should be enough to hold the hood, and these cost about $40 per 20 feet.

As for installation, it's recommended to hire a professional, since venting through the ceiling and the roof, in the case of an island hood, is a complex operation. Home services website Angi estimates that labor costs, including possible ductwork and electrical interventions, may cost up to $100 an hour. The total cost depends on how much work needs to be done to prepare your home for your new island range hood.